ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents a series of case studies from authors drawn from low-, middle-, and high-income countries. Each story provides a celebrated or effective instance of improvement in the particular health system. The book also presents demographic and socioeconomic data on participating countries' health systems, such as population, median age in years, the proportion living in urban areas, and relevant data on access to drinking water and sanitation. It presents this data by WHO region and World Bank income group. The book then presents data on life expectancy and mortality. It then provides data on the density of health workforce, health infrastructure, and technologies. The book provides data on health expenditure.